Local police say they are investigating a chase by foot, car and then skiff that started in downtown Petersburg Saturday afternoon. Chief Jim Agner says no one was injured in the incident. Agner alleges it was the result of a drug-deal-gone-bad.
“Apparently, in the afternoon on Harbor Way, there was some kind of drug deal that didn’t quite go the way it was….planned and people ripped-off somebody and in the process they chased the guys that took his money and the chase went from foot to a vehicle chase. Then it ended up in the harbor in skiffs, being chased with skiffs before it was all done,” he says.
Agner says the trailing skiff did not catch up with the people they were following. Initially, he says police also received reports that the incident involved a robbery and a stolen car but he said both turned out to be false.
However, he says, “part of the concern here is that it involved people racing away from the downtown area in a vehicle in the middle of the day. So, you know he easily could have run over a kid or something and somebody could have been hurt.”
Agner says police have been piecing together what happened, but he’s not optimistic there will be any arrests in the case.
“You know, frankly, the issue we face is that we have a lot of really serious crimes going on here that we are pleading with the District Attorney’s office to get them to take. This case, because it basically involves somebody cheating somebody in a drug, is the sort of case that’s pretty difficult to get prosecuted,” Agner says.
Still, he says police are pursuing the case to see what can be done.
